Renting an office at the Cannes film festival has paid off for Theodore Goddard. For the fifth year running, a team of five lawyers from the City firm’s media and entertainment group, headed by consultant Keith Cousins, were at the festival. During their stay they drew up financing deals for five new films (three European […]
Leadership and management strategies for chambers are to be discussed at an evening seminar this week organised by The Lawyer. Bar Council chair David Penry-Davey is to host the seminar at the Inner Temple on Thursday evening. Speakers are James Hunt QC, head of chambers at 1 King’s Bench Walk, Doughty Street practice manager Christine […]
Judges on the North Eastern Circuit may become more active at the pre-trial stage, following the appointment of Mr Justice Hooper as the new presiding judge. Hooper is one of four presiding judges appointed by Lord Chief Justice Lord Taylor last month. He said the appointment came as a bolt out of the blue, which […]
TWO CITY firms have announced impending office moves to cut back on their overheads. Nicholson Graham & Jones and Sinclair Roche & Temperley have both cited overheads as reasons for their moves. However, a third firm gearing up for a move, the Sheffield branch of Bristol-based Wansbroughs Willey Hargrave, cited the near doubling of its […]
Sri Lankan lawyer Desmond Fernando and German lawyer Klaus Bohlhoff are front runners in the race to lead the International Bar Association next year. Voting, which took place in Madrid on 1 June, is expected to see Fernando replace Scottish lawyer Professor J Ross Harper as president, while Bohlhoff, currently treasurer, is likely to become […]
City law firm Berwin Leighton has appointed eight partners from within the firm. Managing partner Bernard Bartlett said the promotions reflected the good health of the firm: “In a competitive environment we have come through the last few years as a stronger practice and are experiencing an expansion of work in all areas.” The new […]
THE ISLE OF MAN has taken pole position in a race among offshore havens to enact limited liability partnership laws to entice City law firms to register with them. The island has introduced an amendment to a Bill currently going through its parliament in an effort to be the first island to introduce such a […]
The second Pensions Ombudsman, Dr Julian Farrand QC, will soon have the similar powers to a High Court judge. His jurisdiction will be extended by the Pensions Act 1995 to include complaints by trustees against employers and vice versa, and to complaints between two groups of trustees. The ombudsman will, like a judge, be able […]
This is the seventh year that the management consultancy division of Robson Rhodes has run a legal IT survey. Overall 312 firms, employing over 19,000 lawyers and nearly 20,000 support staff responded to the mailshot. The survey included 58 questions and this summary concentrates on some of the most important results, including an increasing technological […]
COMMERCIAL set 3 Gray’s Inn Place has moved to a new home at 3 Verulam Buildings. The set, which has changed its name to match its address, says its new home in the freshly restored Gray’s Inn building is larger and better equipped that its old premises. The Verulam Buildings chambers now boasts a fibre […]
Television researchers investigating cases where defendants make false confessions are calling on lawyers to help them make a documentary. The television company, Antelope Productions, wants to make a documentary highlighting cases when defendants deliberately confess to crimes they did not commit. Associate producer Piu Das Gupta said people made false confessions for many reasons which […]
Twenty solicitors and 30 legal executives will lose their jobs at Lambeth Council if proposals to outsource all legal work are approved next month. The council has decided it should voluntarily hand over its legal work to the private sector just six months after its own legal team won a contract under compulsory competitive tendering. […]